I want to add my Esperanto short as part of my Other Work.
I want to force the English subtitles to come up when embedded on kicktheladder.com.
I have tried adding “?cc_load_policy=1&cc_lang_pref=en” to the end of my URL (as per instruction found here: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/force-subtitles-embedded-youtube-video/), but to no avail. The text box in which to paste the URL will automatically take this extra bit off the ‘base’ URL and then turn green. Whenever I try to add this extra bit to the URL, it always automatically takes it away. Playing back the short shows that my attempt to force captions isn’t working. I even have tried just adding the simpler “?cc_load_policy=1”, but to no avail.
I fixed this generally.
Basically how I was blocking the youtube branding is by making the video player slightly taller so the youtube play bar and titles would appear outside of the 16:9 window and stripping the youtube links.
So now films with captions will expand the height a little bit, adding a letterbox bar on the bottom so the captions can appear within the 16:9 window.
THis will currently be a per film, manual selection by director, where they decide if they want captions or not. You can see that there is some youtube features peaking in on the bottom, but this seems to be a fine compromise.
Thank you for your efforts on this!
I wasn’t seeing this work for MORGAU, but I deleted it from my KTL account and then relinked it, and now it seems to be working, but only when “Play + Fullscreen” mode is clicked on. When clicking on the circular play button on the video, the captions do not show. Interestingly enough, also when clicking on the circular play button and then clicking on the fullscreen square in the bottom right corner, the captions still do not show. (Also, I’m noticing that playback seems to pick up at different points whether playingback from the page, or playingback from “Play + Fullscreen” mode. For example, if I click “Play + Fullscreen” and let the video play till 0:15, then I hit ESC, the video on the KTL page will not have started at all. Then when I click to play from the KTL page, and watch till 0:08, then click on “Play + Fullscreen”, the video will pick up playback from 0:08. And if I continue watching till 0:20, and then hit ESC again, the video from the KTL page will continue playback from 0:08. And then if I watch that till 0:10, then hit “Play + Fullscreen”, the video will continue playback from 0:10. So it seems that “Play + Fullscreen” mode can pickup video playback from its KTL page, but the KTL page cannot pickup playback from the “Play + Fullscreen” mode.)
I’m also noticing that the link textbox from the Other Works submission page still automatically cuts off the “?cc_load_policy=1&cc_lang_pref=en” I try to add to the end of my video’s YouTube URL. I imagine it was built this way in order to ensure that it’s only using the most direct YouTube source, especially considering there are things that could get added to the end of a YouTube URL that would effect its playback without the filmmaker intending to do so. It just so happens that this is a case where the filmmaker *is* intending to effect playback, haha!
My guess as to the discrepancy here is that playingback from the KTL page is an embedding of the YouTube video, while “Play + Fullscreen” mode is something different than embedding. Since the “?cc_load_policy=1&cc_lang_pref=en” affects embedded YouTube video behavior, and since the submission page isn’t allowing addendums to base URLs, I think that’s why captions won’t appear on KTL page playback. Just a shot in the dark that maybe by writing here, if not useful to Isaac, might be useful to someone trying to troubleshoot this in the future.
how the site was built was to sanitize the youtube urls, so if you append anything onto the submitted url, it’ll get removed, this is how we’re able to make sure all the films play the same throughout the site.
I did add an ‘add captions’ button, which essentially adds the captions to the end of the sanitized link (since most people woulnd’t know about the code to add for captions, it’s not a button.
what that button does also is changes the films player height to reveal the captions that are underneath, so the film plays a tad differently (youtube branding sneaks in a little more).
if it’s not working, try doing a forced refresh. I believe it’s command + shift + R
i can soon cross check with different browsers as well because it’s showing up for me on my end
For reference: I’m using Firefox v153.0.4 and Safari 26.3
It’s improved!! I can now see captions in “Play + Fullscreen” mode as well as from watching it on it’s KTL page, EXCEPT they’re still not showing when playing from its KTL page and then clicking the fullscreen button in the bottom right corner.
I’ve just added another Esperanto short: 3ft hole.
I am not seeing an ‘add captions’ button. I did add the ‘force captions’ appendage to the end of the base URL, tho, and the captions are showing up in ‘Play + Fullscreen’ mode, but not from the KTL page, just like how it originally was for MORGAU.
Hmm, now I’m noticing that all my KTLs are forcing subtitles when in “Play + Fullscreen” mode.
